I have a student who raises his shoulders too much. This is a very common problem, especially among men who tend to put too much strength into their movements. They raise their shoulders in an effort to generate more power -- but in the process, actually slow themselves down and generate less power.

I am always telling this student, "lower your shoulders," "lower your shoulders," "lower your shoulders," ... I must seem to say it all the time.

I had the same problem so I can sympathize. My shoulders were always raised.

But it suddenly dawned on me -- when I was working in my son's yard -- that I should not repeat "lower your shoulders" over and over. That would be like picking weeds but not planting grass.

You can pick all the weeds in a yard, but unless there is good grass to grow in its place, you will just get more weeds. You have to also plant good grass.

When you squeeze your lats, it is just about impossible to raise your shoulders. Try it. And when you raise your shoulders, it is also just about impossible to squeeze your lats. The two are mutually exclusive.

So the point is that you have to replace a bad habit with a good habit -- you have to dig out the weeds but also plant grass. You can't just say "stop, stop, stop". You have to also teach the student how to do the correct thing.

Instead of stopping the bad habit of raising the shoulders, you should encourage the good habit of squeezing the lats. One is negative, the other positive.

Like I said, this is important to me, because I do not like being negative.

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"Karate Jutsu" means "China Hand art". Karate came to Okinawa from China.
Only in the 1930s or so, was the term "Karate" changed to mean "Empty Hand".
"China Hand" was used in Hawaii until after World War II, and is still used in some dojo.